


frequency

by spookyfoot



Series: resonance [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, emotional resonance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-14 14:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16494551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookyfoot/pseuds/spookyfoot
Summary: As the rocket hurtles towards the outer limits of Earth’s atmosphere, streaking smoke across the sky, Keith’s world bursts into color.





	frequency

**Author's Note:**

> for the "goodbyes" square on my voltron bingo card.

The _Persephone_ waits over his shoulder as Keith falls into Shiro’s arms. A few feet away, the Holts are saying their goodbyes.  Commander Holt’s daughter tells her father that by the time he gets back she’ll have a Galaxy Garrison acceptance letter to show him. Keith wonders if she’ll be in any of his classes; wonders if he’ll be getting off planet missions by then.

If he’ll get sent away  just  in time to miss Shiro coming back. 

Keith’s fingers scrabble against Shiro’s flight suit before he grips it harder. It’s stiff and scratchy and too new. 

(Months later, Keith still remembers how it chafed his palms. He’d looked at the scrubbed raw surface for a full week and felt sad as they started to heal. Examining the new itchy-pink skin papering over the scrapes as Shiro flew farther and farther away.)

“Thanks for seeing me off, Keith,” Shiro says. His voice is soft but the pitch is wrong.

"S’nothing."

It’s everything. 

It’s Shiro’s dream. It’s the finality of a looming goodbye. It’s knowing that he won’t see Shiro for three years.  It’s that knowing Shiro for three years has changed Keith in ways he couldn’t have imagined—who will he be after three years without him?

“Sure,” Shiro says, because Shiro knows better than to push him when that’s the way Keith wants to play it. Because Shiro’s learned to read Keith’s silences in a way nobody else had ever bothered to.

Keith lets himself have one moment to linger. He tucks his head against Shiro’s throat and breathes in. It’s not as nice as it should be. Everything is still grey. Keith thought—well he thought they might have found the same frequency but—

He shuts his eyes tight, blotting everything out aside from the feel of Shiro’s body pressed against his, the weight of Shiro’s hands against his back.

Yesterday, Shiro had told him that Adam hadn’t been his soulmate.  In the stillness of the cool desert night, Keith had looked at the blanket of stars overhead and wondered if it would look any different in color. Shiro said that he hadn’t minded that he and Adam weren’t in tune enough to make one another see colors. He said that love could operate on all sorts of frequencies.

Keith wonders if Shiro still minds; wonders what frequency Shiro’s operating at these days.

The thick grey fabric of Shiro’s flight suit still smells like factory and plastic. It’s too new to feel anything like the home Keith’s made of the person inside of it.  But the soft skin where the suit's collar ends smells like Shiro’s ridiculous lemongrass soap and sweat and skin  .  Keith wonders what Shiro will smell like after a couple months in space, passing by Mars, unbound by Earth’s gravity. He wonders if he’ll ever get the chance to find out.

“Hope you don’t get bored hearing them talk about space ice cubes for three years.” Keith can’t quite get the last couple of words out as steady as he wants to. Shiro pretends not to notice.

“There’ll be enough to do. And I’ll send messages when I can, promise.”

_When I can._ It isn’t a promise carved in time and space—but coming from Shiro it might as well be. Shiro’s always kept his promises. And the few times he couldn’t, he never made Keith feel like it was his fault.

Keith holds on longer than he should. He holds on until Lieutenant Ryu comes over to tap Shiro on the shoulder and tell him it’s time to go. And then he holds on a little longer still.

But he has to let go. Shiro looks at him with a broad hand curled around Keith’s shoulder and a sad sort of half smile.

“Goodbye Keith,” Shiro says.

“Goodbye, Shiro,” Keith says. And it feels wrong; it feels too final. Shiro starts to walk away, shoulders square, striding straight towards the _Persephone_. Not for the first time, Keith wonders what would happen if he asked Shiro to stay. “Hey, Shiro,” Keith says. Shiro turns around. The majority of his features are blurred by the burning sun behind him but Keith can still see the troubled tilt of his mouth. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

Shiro smiles. “I’ll see you then, Keith,” he says. Keith watches as he walks towards the shuttle, smaller and smaller and—

And then he’s gone.

Time moves thick and fast.  Keith loses track of the preparations, his heart beat roaring in his ears and he wishes the world had flashed into color but it _didn’t_ and—

The countdown to launch starts before Keith’s ready—as if he ever would be.

_Ten_

The first time Shiro took him out for milkshakes at O’Rourke’s. Dipping their fries into it, Shiro laughing so hard he’d snorted half his milkshake out of his nose.

_Nine_

The time Keith rolled his right wrist after stealing a hover bike. How afterwards, Shiro had shown him how to bandage it on his own so he wouldn’t lose out on sim time.

_Eight_

Shiro’s last birthday party, six candles on his cake, accompanied by an eyeroll and a smile. The kiss he’d shared with Adam. The twist Keith felt deep in his gut: of finally belonging somewhere but not someone—at least not in the way he wanted.

_Seven_

Keith breaking Shiro’s sim records—and the earth shattering smile on Shiro’s face when Keith told him. Keith’s never recovered.

_Six_

Finding out Shiro was sick and Shiro’s torn but determined face; knowing the decision didn't belong to anyone other than Shiro.  

_Five_

Hating Adam for wanting Shiro to give up his dream.

_Four_

Wishing there were some way he could go with Shiro. Knowing he could never ask him to stay—that he never would.

_Three_

Bruised knees, scratched cheeks and—“I’ll never give up on you.”

_Two_

The last night they spent together in the desert, threadworn blanket beneath their backs  . They'd stared at the stars, mapping the constellations they’d visit together, someday. Keith  desperately  ignoring the reality that this was Shiro’s last chance to see them at all. Desperately wishing there'd be one look—one moment—that would throw his world into color. 

It didn't.  

_One._

It’s too much. All Shiro’s ever wanted were the stars. Keith wants them too—but he wants Shiro to be happy most of all.

As the rocket hurtles towards the outer limits of Earth’s atmosphere, streaking smoke across the sky, Keith’s world bursts into color.

**Author's Note:**

> so the concept for this fic is that soulmates aren't totally set. you have a decent amount of possibilities and some amount of agency. but clicking as soulmates—seeing the world in color—is determined by emotional resonance. so you inch towards it as you get closer to someone. and when your emotions are on the same frequency as a potential soulmate, that's when you see color. 
> 
> I have no idea if there'll be any more of this au. I just wanted to write this scene. specifically...keith finding out shiro is his soulmate at/right after the kerberos launch. 
> 
> on [ tumblr](http://spookyfoot.tumblr.com) and on [ twitter](http://twitter.com/spooky_foot).


End file.
